University presses want to get e-books into libraries and make those books readily discoverable by scholars, but many presses lack the technical resources to pull it off easily. As recently as last fall, they didn’t have many noncommercial options if they wanted outside help.

But soon they’ll have at least four collective nonprofit or academically affiliated options to pick from. Large-scale e-book platforms organized by JSTOR, Project MUSE, Oxford University Press, and a consortium led by several midsize presses are all on the verge of going live.